BlizzCast # 13 Q&A Goes Live

BlizzCast # 13 is now live with Q&As for each Blizzard game franchise. For Diablo III, there were questions ranging phase technology, skill respec, class resource systems (i.e. Fury, Mana, etc.), bind on equip and bind on account items, gold and durability..

Only the Witch Doctor’s mana resource system is solid, the other classes still need some work. The Monk’s resource system, however, is the more rounded up in comparison with the Barbarian’s which was the very first class announced. Odd? Sadly, Bashiok doesn’t reveal what the Monk’s resource system is. The Wizard’s is the hardest for the Dev Team to nail down.

There will be a new revision of all classes very soon—which rises the question: Will there be a new BlizzCon or WWI on 2010? There have been rumors and false alarms with the Las Vegas and Anaheim Convention Centers’ listings and sudden unlistings.

Gold, Durability and Repairs didn’t appear in the early demos played at BlizzCon and WWI—and that doesn’t mean there won’t be any in Diablo III, it only means they are going to work on these mechanics after they are done with the five classes.

Those who played in World of Warcraft closed beta might remember that far in development there was no repairs or durability. It was introduced in a later beta patch. To give you an idea how long it took for them to introduce repairs and durability, I was level 60 and raiding Blackrock Depths when it was first introduced in a patch. Sometimes it makes sense to worry about it and add these type of mechanics later in the development cycle.

It is unknown at this point if there will be bind on equip and bind on account items, but it is not totally ruled out.

Blizzard Quote:

In our thirteenth BlizzCast episode, we focus on the recent start of the StarCraft II beta! An interview with the StarCraft II’s production director and game director discusses what beta testers and the overall StarCraft community can expect in the latest multiplayer version of the game. The developers also provide some insight into other topics such as the single player campaign, eSports, and macro mechanics. In our second segment, World of Warcraft and Diablo community managers take you through a Q&A segment sharing exciting information about how the future of those series are shaping up.

There is some enigma left out and implied somewhere by Bashiok concerning whether Diablo III will use phase technology. Diablo III is not an MMO, so phase technology as it exists in an MMO is not possible in Diablo III which has been built from the ground up to be like Diablo II. Once you leave that instance, and join a new one, everything you did before is reset. There’s something lingering around the term of instance and phase technology as you can see in this part of the BlizzCast # 13. I remember asking Jay Wilson at the Blizzard’s cafeteria if they had used phase technology in Diablo III, and the answer was no. Could it be used in certain situations? Bashiok’s answer makes you wonder:

This answer really makes you wonder if phase technology will be used in specific ways to show changes in the landscape—i.e. you get quests at a city, and a few acts later said city is under siege and when you get back to it, it is ablaze and some NPCs are death, while others are terrified and offer you new quests to deal with their new status quo. That would be an interesting way to use it.

Blizzard Quote:

Bashiok: I’m just kidding. World of Warcraft for those that don’t know, I don’t know who wouldn’t know, but phasing is a way for the game to separate how different players see the world at the same time. They’re all interacting in an MMO persistent world and phasing is used to split up those players to allow them to see the world change and their actions take root in the lore of the world. We’re not a persistent MMO, Diablo III is not a persistent MMO. It’s much more like Diablo II where you load up a game and there’s an instance of that game and then you leave that game and if you start a new game, everything is more or less reset to where you were. It’s very Diablo II-esque so we really don’t need phasing to advance world states because it’s not necessary in the same way to treat different players differently while in the same world. There’s an answer hidden in there somewhere. But anyway…